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There are now 10 river systems protected by the act, including the Lockhart, Archer and Stewart rivers.

Mr Pearson and Mr Abbott argue that local indigenous people have lost control of their land and are unable to exploit the economic opportunities. They blame the environmentalist movement which drove the legislation.

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But Murrandoo Yanner, of the Carpentaria Land Council, has joined calls from other indigenous leaders from the Cape and Gulf country to contend that Mr Pearson does not speak for them.

Mr Yanner backed a letter sent to the independent MP Rob Oakeshott on Tuesday by David Claudie, of the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation, warning of ''unrestrained development'' should the act be overturned.

Mr Yanner said the act did not preclude locals from hunting and fishing and nor did it stop development. It just meant that there would have to be better environmental safeguards.

He noted there were negotiations afoot in the Wild Rivers area for the Lagoon Creek uranium mine on Westmoreland Station. ''You can develop anything provided you spend the extra money on the safeguards and so you bloody should,'' he told the Herald. Mr Yanner said Mr Pearson was a hypocrite who was ''leading whitefellas astray''.

''He took Abbott for a ride,'' Mr Yanner said.

Before the election, a private member's bill sponsored by Mr Abbott to overturn the Wild Rivers Act passed the Senate with the support of the independents Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding. It was opposed by the Greens and Labor and never progressed in the House of Representatives.

However, under the reforms agreed to for this Parliament, time has been set aside to debate private members' bills and they must be voted on.

In his speech on Tuesday, Mr Abbott said overturning the act was the Coalition's first priority.

''Far better for the national Parliament to restore to the people of Cape York control of their own land than to inflict on them a new detention centre for asylum seekers,'' he said, a reference to the new detention centre planned for Weipa.

Senator Xenophon told the Herald he still supported overturning the act but wanted to talk to all stakeholders before voting again.

Queensland's Resources Minister, Stephen Robertson, said Mr Abbott had no mandate to overturn the act.

He had written to all the federal independents offering them a briefing.